By  Christine Peterson, Wyoming Wildlife, December 1, 2019 

The stress and tension were palpable. Dozens if not hundreds of antelope  would bunch up between the fence and highway, panicking with each  passing vehicle. They were all jockeying for a spot to crawl under the  fence and dart across the highway.
Biologist Hall Sawyer spent years watching the phenomenon west of  Pinedale at Trappers Point during fall and spring migrations. The  research biologist for Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. said it was  chaotic, confusing and dangerous — for animals and drivers. Wildlife  died by the dozens.
But that was before fences built along the two-lane highway funneled  animals to wildlife overpasses made of concrete and rebar covered with  dirt and gravel. In the first three years after building six underpasses  and two overpasses, antelope and deer crossed the highway more than  60,000 times. If not for the structures, that would have been 60,000  times an animal risked death by crossing the road – 60,000 times a  vehicle could have crashed or swerved into the ditch to avoid a  collision.
“You can see a sense of ease as they blow right over that overpass and not miss a beat,” said Sawyer.
People in Wyoming and across the West are starting to understand the importance of wildlife crossing structures.
A wildlife license plate bearing a regal mule deer buck in the prairie  adorns more than a thousand cars. Proceeds from those help to fund  roadway projects that support wildlife crossings. The Wyoming Game and  Fish Department and Wyoming Department of Transportation prioritize  finding creative solutions to prevent collisions with wildlife which  sometimes includes building crossings. Nonprofits rally support to help  pay for the structures and critical research.
Cost is still a concern — an overpass stretched over four lanes of  interstate alone can run up to $7 million — but agencies, nonprofits,  individuals and lawmakers are hopeful as they collaborate to save  humans, protect wildlife and possibly reconnect ancient migrations.

Numbers add up
The results of overpasses and underpasses aren’t measured just in anecdotes, nor are the reasons behind building them.
WYDOT reports about 6,000 wildlife collisions per year. That number is  probably an understatement, according to a report from Game and Fish and  WYDOT called Wyoming Wildlife and Roadways Initiative a Road Map  Forward.
“Many animals leave the road right of way before dying, and many  carcasses are not picked up before decaying or being scavenged to the  point of being difficult to remove,” the report stated.
The data also doesn’t include wildlife hit in national parks or  carcasses such as bears, bighorn sheep or mountain goats that are  collected by Game and Fish officials.
Even the most conservative number of about 2,200 collisions each year  amounts to more than 15 percent of all reported vehicle collisions in  Wyoming, depending on the year. Vehicles kill about 2 to 4 percent of  the Cowboy State’s mule deer population annually.
This is a data-driven way of saying wildlife-vehicle collisions are a  real problem in Wyoming and across the country, said Angi Bruce, Game  and Fish deputy director.
Over and underpasses, placed in the right area, can reduce collisions by up to 90 percent.
Take Nugget Canyon as another example. About 130 mule deer used to die  each year on the 12-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 30 near Kemmerer. The  issue was bad enough the Wyoming Legislature passed a law in 1986  directing agencies to find a solution.
Biologists and highway officials tried various fixes, even building  fences to force deer to cross in one place. Flashing lights were  supposed to warn drivers, said Bill Rudd, former Game and Fish wildlife  coordinator in the Green River region.
“They were killing almost as many deer after the fence was put in as  they were before,” Rudd said. “They were just killing them all at that  location.”
The first real fix came in the form of an underpass in 2001. When  numbers showed it reduced deer collisions almost completely, officials  and nongovernmental organizations found money for another six  underpasses and miles of fencing funneling deer to those safe crossings.
Wildlife mortalities on the stretch ultimately dropped by more than 80 percent.
Nugget Canyon and Trappers Point are just the beginning, Bruce said.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and WYDOT each contributed $1.25  million to begin building six to eight underpasses in areas along U.S.  Highway 189 south of Big Piney. The U.S. Department of Transportation  recently awarded a $14.5 million federal grant to WYDOT for the project,  marking the first time wildlife projects have risen to the attention  for this federal award. The grant is the first of its kind to focus on  wildlife connectivity and roadways. After Nugget Canyon, this area has  one of the highest mule deer collision rates in the state. About 120  deer are hit each year as the Wyoming Range mule deer herd migrates and  winters in wide, open sagebrush. The project will take years to be  completed. It is being split in multiple phases with phase one focusing  on two key underpasses.
Plans for the rest of the state are also well underway.
In 2017, about 130 people from Game and Fish, WYDOT, federal agencies,  nonprofits, the University of Wyoming and members of the public joined  to formally address the collision crisis, put data to the problem and  arrive at a locally-driven, science-based consensus for what projects  needed to be done in the future.
The list, which was further refined over the following months, contains  about 240 possibilities, narrowed down to 43 top projects and another 10  that are most urgent and have a clear opportunities for partnerships.
“If a road is being reconstructed somewhere,” Bruce said. “We want to jump on that.”

 Sound investment
Over and underpasses sound like a miracle cure for wildlife deaths, but they aren’t cheap.
A box culvert underpass usually runs about $675,000 to $950,000, with  another $200,000 per mile in 8-foot fencing on either side to make sure  the creatures actually use the underpass. A complete overpass project  with multiple crossings can cost as much as $30 million.
But they also save the state and its residents millions.
Of Wyoming’s recorded wildlife collisions, about 87 percent were mule  deer, 7 percent were pronghorn, 4 percent were elk, 1 percent were moose  and a fraction of the last remaining 1 percent were bison, bighorn  sheep and mountain goats.
The average deer-vehicle crash costs about $11,600 due to damage to driver property and injury.
Deer collisions alone between 2013 and 2015 amounted to almost $30  million in injuries and damage to vehicles, not to mention an additional  $20 million to $23 million in wildlife costs lost to the state.
“And we can’t put a value on human life, or at least I can’t,” Bruce  said. “The underpasses at Dry Piney, for example, can pay for themselves  in a short time when you think a 75-year life span for the structure  itself.”
While WYDOT and Game and Fish officials all said they prioritize highway  crossings, neither have a large enough pot of money to pay for them.
WYDOT’s first step is to compare proposed wildlife projects with highway repair needs.
U.S. Highway 89 south of Jackson, for example, was already being widened  to five lanes. So, WYDOT lengthened bridges and added underpasses to  ease deer and elk migrations, said Shelby Carlson, WYDOT’s chief  engineer.
WYDOT applies for federal one-time grants and matching grants. It also uses some internal money, as does Game and Fish.
The Wyoming Legislature approved a new license plate in 2018 that costs  $180 per plate and another $50 each year in registration fees. As of  early October, sales of the plates raised almost $170,000 — a figure  that increases almost daily, Carlson said. Some businesses, like  Casper’s ITC Electrical Technologies, purchased them for an entire  fleet.
Nonprofits like the Muley Fanatic Foundation, Greater Yellowstone  Coalition, Wyoming Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy  contribute tens of thousands of dollars or help raise awareness in  communities. The Wyoming Natural Resource Trust and the federal Natural  Resource Conservation Service offer money for fencing and potential  easements for access. Individual donors also offer money and access.
Wyoming’s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso is moving a draft transportation bill  through Congress that would include a provision for federally-funded  wildlife crossings.
“This issue is really ramping up not only within Wyoming but  nationwide,” Carlson said. “There’s momentum in Wyoming right now that  we need to continue to leverage.”

 Driver awareness
While one of the best solutions, over and underpasses aren’t always the most practical answer.
Some places have topography that doesn’t allow for that kind of  infrastructure. In other places, surrounding houses and driveways make  the kind of fencing required to funnel wildlife almost impossible. Some  areas, like around Dubois, wildlife tend to cross back and forth  throughout the day at various places. So building over or underpasses  could potentially disrupt their daily movements as much or more than the  highway already does.
Other solutions, though, aren’t always as effective.
Corinna Riginos has spent the past six years studying wildlife crossings  and migration, most recently with The Nature Conservancy.
She’s documented how reflectors intended to deter deer don’t work —  though it’s possible the white canvas bags covering the reflectors  during a control test might help. Those diamond-shaped signs with a  jumping deer on them make little-to-no difference.
Recently she completed a two-year study for WYDOT showing that when  speed limits are posted as 70 mph during the day and 55 mph at night,  the average driver only slows down between three and five mph.
“Perhaps the most effective thing we can do, but it’s going to be the  most difficult thing to actually effect, is changing motorist driver  behavior and getting people to slow down,” said Daryl Lutz, Game and  Fish regional wildlife coordinator in the Lander region.
The amount of time lost on dropping from 70 to 55 mph is minimal, he said, and prevents collisions.
That Dubois stretch, for example, is about 25 miles long. If people  slowed down by 15 mph they would only lose about six minutes.
Posted nighttime speed limits are tricky to enforce, particularly during  dawn and dusk, because nighttime is subjective, Lutz said. WYDOT  recently installed permanent dual speed limit signs outside Cody similar  to those on Interstate 80 and could use them in other places. But even  with a posted, legally-enforceable speed limit, Wyoming would likely  need to increase law enforcement presence to truly change behavior,  Riginos said.
Eliminating unneeded vegetation on the roadway can also help keep  animals out of the rights of way and increase motorist visibility, but  this adds to the habitat loss associated with highways.
Other options such as flashing signs with warnings about migrating  animals may work when the message changes frequently and the signs are  moved, Riginos said, but clear data on their effectiveness is still  lacking.

 Restoring ancient migrations
In all of the discussion of human and animal safety, one message that’s often lost is the impact of severed migrations on herds.
No one knows exactly how far some herds migrated before roadways like  interstates 80 and 25 were built, but radio collar data shows deer, elk  and pronghorn still struggle with the barriers.
“You can see it looks like a brick wall,” Bruce said. “You have all the  collaring GPS points come up to a road and bunch up and not go farther.  That tells us a lot.”
The negative impact of losing quality habitat is difficult to quantify,  but if wildlife could migrate effectively from their ideal winter to  ideal summer ranges as they did for millennia before European  settlement, herds would be healthier and more robust, Riginos said.
Not every road completely severs migration. But most four-lane divided  highways are essentially impenetrable, as are any with high traffic  volume.
Riginos recently completed a project using thermal video cameras. It  showed deer need at least 30 seconds in between consecutive vehicles to  attempt to cross a highway safely. Less time leads to inevitable  collisions.
Lutz, Riginos and other Wyoming biologists have dreamed of restoring those ancient migrations, particularly over Interstate 80.
“That would be the crown jewel of our efforts to get wildlife  crossings,” Lutz said. “It stands to reason if we could reestablish them  and make more habitat available that can only be, in my opinion, a good  thing.”
And then perhaps any of those hundreds of thousands of travelers winding  back and forth down Interstate 80 each year will feel the same sense of  ease Hall Sawyer felt years ago at Trappers Point as herds safely  crossed to their original range.

—      Christine Peterson has spent nearly a decade writing about  Wyoming’s fish, wildlife, outdoors and environment. She now works from  her home in Laramie.